NBA: Darko Milicic not Boston Celtics' solution at center

As Rajon Rondo admitted after a loss to the Sixers Friday night, “it’s just chaos” for the Celtics when center Kevin Garnett is not in the game.

With Garnett in the lineup, the Celtics were a plus-nine in points this season heading into last night’s game at Milwaukee, but without him they were a minus-29. No wonder their record was only 2-3.

Garnett is 36, so coach Doc Rivers limits him to 30 minutes or less to avoid wearing him down, but any lead that Garnett helps build usually disappears when he heads to the bench. The Celtics also struggled when Garnett rested last season, but the drop-off has become worse this year.

“Right now,” Rivers told the media Friday, “if you want to focus on something, that’s what you should focus on.”

So far, Rivers has not considered Darko Milicic to be the solution. Rivers has gone with smaller lineups while keeping the 7-foot, 275-pound Milicic, the team’s largest player, on the bench. Entering last night, Milicic had played in only one of Boston’s first five games for a total of 4-1/2 minutes.

After praising Milicic during training camp, Rivers hasn’t said much about him lately. When asked Friday if playing Milicic could solve the Celtics’ problems without Garnett, Rivers replied, “It could, but he has to earn it.”

Apparently, Milicic hasn’t produced in practice. Unfortunately, the Celtics have become the latest team to grow disenchanted with him.

While the Celtics lost to the Sixers Friday, two of the biggest disappointments in NBA draft history were on hand. Milicic still is trying to get back in the rotation following a wrist injury and Kwame Brown is nursing a strained left calf for the Sixers.

Detroit made the 7-foot Milicic the second pick of the 2003 NBA draft, directly behind LeBron James and ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

When Michael Jordan was running the Washington Wizards, he chose the 6-11 Brown with the No. 1 pick in 2001, passing over Tyson Chandler, Pau Gasol, Jason Richardson, Joe Johnson and Tony Parker.

“I stopped chasing the dream of being the second pick a long time ago,” Milicic said. “To prove people wrong, I would have had to get 100 points and 50 rebounds a game. All I was thinking in my career was to be the best I can be, not being the second pick.”

Milicic was only 17 years old when he was drafted and had played only in Serbia. Brown was 19 and had played only in high school in Georgia. But they were drafted high because of their size and potential. Too often, that hasn’t turned out to be a good enough combination.

Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3 former UConn star whom Memphis chose as the No. 2 pick in 2009, rides the Thunder bench and has averaged only 2.2 points and 2.7 rebounds in his career.

Michael Olowokandi, the No. 1 pick in 1998, and Sam Bowie, the No. 3 pick in 1984, weren’t complete busts, but their journeyman careers didn’t justify their high selections. The Celtics, however, made the most wasted draft pick of all time when they selected Len Bias with the second pick in 1986. Bias died two days later of a heart attack caused by a cocaine overdose.

In their NBA careers, Milicic has averaged only 6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 18.5 minutes while Brown has averaged 6.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 27.5 minutes. The Celtics are Milicic’s sixth team and the Sixers are Brown’s seventh. They were teammates in Memphis briefly during the 2007-08 season.

Milicic’s career numbers aren’t far behind those of former Celtic Kendrick Perkins, who has averaged 6.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, but Perk is a far better defender. Perkins was only 18 when he was drafted 27th in 2003, 25 picks after Milicic, but he worked hard to lose weight and develop his defensive skills. Hard work never has been Milicic’s strong suit.

Sixers coach Doug Collins also coached Brown in Washington.

“He has an identity now,” Collins said. “He can post defend, he can rebound the ball. He’s no longer viewed as the No. 1 pick in the draft. I think that’s a burden that you carry for a long time and eventually what you have to do when you bring him into your franchise is you sell to people what he does well.

“We feel like when Kwame is healthy, he’s a very good low-post defender, he can rebound. I know Boston, I know Doc tried to sign Kwame a couple of years ago.”

On the other hand, this is Rivers’ first chance to try to bring out the best in Milicic, something no other coach could. Milicic said his wrist is fine and he’s ready to play.

“Some games, he might need me and I’ll be there,” Milicic said. “Some games, I might not be playing but I knew coming here that might happen. I didn’t come here expecting to play a lot. I just came here to do whatever they wanted me to do.”

Milicic is still only 27, just eight months older than Rondo and three months younger than Greg Stiemsma. When training camp began, Rivers said he merely wanted Milicic to rebound and block shots, but he hasn’t given him much of a chance to do either.

The Celtics may have been better off re-signing Stiemsma, who blocked quite a few shots as a rookie last season even though he was too often out of position on defense. Stiemsma had 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks in Minnesota’s 90-75 victory over Orlando Wednesday.

Milicic’s most productive season was with Minnesota in 2010-11, when he started 69 games and averaged 8.8 points, both career highs, and ranked fifth in the NBA with 2.03 blocks per game.

Milicic admitted he had trouble with the coaches on a losing team in Minnesota last year. So the T-wolves amnestied him, eating at least $10 million of his four-year, $20 million contract, to get rid of him. The Celtics signed him as a free agent for one year and $1.2 million in September after they didn’t have the salary cap space to match Minnesota’s two-year, $5.27 million offer to Stiemsma.

“I did make mistakes in my career,” Milicic said, “but it is what it is right now. I’m here right now and I never thought I would be here playing with these guys for a championship. I’ll do my best to stay here.”

Milicic admitted he was surprised that the Celtics called him. He figured his playing days had ended not only in the NBA, but anywhere. He planned to stay home in Serbia and hunt and fish, not play basketball.

What does he like to hunt? “Anything that’s alive,” he said.

Milicic has fished carp professionally in Europe.

“I’m not really good right now,” he said of fishing, “but I’m still chasing my dreams. Carp fishing is different fishing. You’ve got to get a good spot.”

He’d like to get a spot on the court as well, but as Rivers said, he’ll have to earn one.

It’s still early, but E’Twaun Moore is outplaying Courtney Lee and Jason Terry.

Moore played little as a rookie with the Celtics last season and was included in the deal last summer with Houston for Lee. Houston waived him, and Orlando general manager Rob Henningan, a Worcester native, made a smart move by signing the 6-foot-4 guard as a free agent.

While the Celtics are committed to paying Lee $21.350 million over the next four years and Terry $15.7 million over the next three, Moore has been a bargain so far at $1.65 million over the next two.

While JaJuan Johnson, another Celtics rookie from last season sent to Houston, is no longer in the NBA, Moore has taken advantage of his chance to play regularly in Orlando.

“E’Twaun is playing unbelievable,” Rivers said. “He was ahead of JaJuan last year and it had nothing to do with individual talent. It had to do with mental makeup. E’Twaun’s a smart kid. He gets it. JaJuan’s young. He has to figure it out.”